Former Buckeye distance runner Chris Fallon may have graduated and moved on from competitive racing, but he remains involved in the world of running and athletics, all be it on a different platform. Fallon, a two-time First Team All-American, graduated in the spring and is now working for Nike while living in Chicago.

"I have officially hung up the spikes," Fallon said, "although I may get after a road race every now and then. I achieved everything I could have dreamed of and more in my time as a Buckeye. I had to keep the dream rolling by working here."

As the Marketing Assistant to the Central Territory, Fallon works primarily under the running category but sometimes crosses categories into basketball, football, and women's training.

"The central territory covers the central 22 states and all sales and marketing activities in those states," Fallon said. "However, most of my work is in the Chicagoland area where right now I am working pretty intensively with the launch of the new Free Flyknit+. Following that, focus will turn to the Chicago Marathon where Nike is a key sponsor."

During the fall of his junior year at Ohio State, Nike was on campus doing a marketing event for the Columbus Marathon. During that time Fallon, a native of Copley, Ohio, worked alongside other student-athletes and met some key Nike employees based out of Chicago.

"This is where I found out about the internship and a bit about how the process went," Fallon said. "That winter and spring, with the experience I had from the before mentioned event and also working in the sport industry for the previous year, I applied and interviewed for the Nike Internship through our athletics department and was lucky enough to receive it."

"A lot of student-athletes don't realize that our university is guaranteed at least one Nike intern each summer," Fallon continued. "While most interns go to Portland, I was sent to the Chicago office where I was the only intern, which made the experience even greater!"

Being constantly surrounded by athletics is something that Fallon, who has been an athlete his whole life, says makes his job so cool.

"The greatest thing is simply walking into the office each day," Fallon said, "but working with, seeing and creating marketing plans around footwear and apparel that is new to the market is definitely the coolest process."

As far as advice he would give to current and future Buckeyes looking to gain experience for a future career, Fallon said it is very crucial to gain experience outside of simply athletics.

"To go after a high-level internship, especially one with a powerful brand such as Nike, getting involved outside of athletics and school is important," Fallon said. "Get a job, join a club and actively participate. Everyone that is attempting to go after that dream internship or job is an overachiever in everything they do, not just one aspect of their life, so you are going to have to do that as well."

Two other Ohio State student-athletes currently hold internships with Nike. Former women's tennis player Kara Cecil is interning for Nike out of Chicago, while OSU senior fencer Andrew McDonald is interning for Nike in Portland.